2012 Aviva Contest--Funding Opportunity for Medical Equipment for ME

The 2012 Aviva Contest is beginning. A ME patient has submitted a project for funding for medical equipment for the new complex chronic diseases clinic in Vancouver. Please see project info below. Voting in the 1st round runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15. Please help to spread the word about this contest. Thanks.
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Hello,

My name is Kati. I am a patient with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. This disease, along with fibromyalgia,multiple chemical sensitivites and Lyme disease are the most neglected and understated diseases of them all.

The British Colombian government has funded a clinic for patients suffering from these disease and research will also take place. As the clinic is being set up, patients would like to contribute to the effort by helping funding medical equipment needed for diagnosis and treatment of these diseases.

Be assured we are not asking for money, but we are asking for a bit of your time. Aviva contest is a voting contest, and winners will provided funding for their ideas. We need your votes!

Here is how you can vote: From October 1st to October 15th, click either of these link below and vote. And you're done. You get 15 votes, and can only vote for us once daily. You need to be canadian to vote.

We would appreciate your support, please pass it on. The success of this clinic would benefit all patients in Canada, because it would set a precedent on how to treat us the patients and promote research.

Just voted. 3 votes so far. The website is slow right now so be patient.

This year they have "achievement" badges. The first one is the Rally Badge given for ideas that gain 10 supporters. That means 7 more people need to vote for us to get it. The more badges we collect, the better we are going to look to the general public and the more attention we will attract!

Well over 1 million Canadians suffer from chronic illnesses such as myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome), fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivities and Lyme disease and do not get adequate care and treatments by our health care system.

A new Complex Chronic Diseases Clinic will open in 2013 in Vancouver to address these diseases and provide the support that its sufferers deserve.

Through this project, we want to help fund medical equipment needed in order to properly diagnose these patients, get the care they need and train staff in performing these tests according to the standards of the field.

The first testing equipment needed is a tilt table, with cardio-vascular monitoring- and blood pressure machine. This helps physicians understanding the extent of autonomic nervous system dysfunction called Neurally Mediated Hypotension (NMH) or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

Secondly, a new protocol called "Stevens' protocol" consist of a 2 consecutive days VO2 Max exercise test, tests cardio-vascular endurance and tests for the a pathology unique of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis. A special exercise bike is needed, along with cardio vascular monitors, including an oxygen and carbon monoxide sensor is needed.

Holter monitors would be great for patients to get their hearts monitors for 24 hour testing.

Proper training will be needed for professionals to use these monitors properly.

These 2 tests provide objective proof of illness which has been lacking in the past. Moreover patients will also need Holter monitors.

There is some good news and bad news. Let's start with the good news. We have moved up from 82nd overall to 64th position yesterday. That's a big improvement but we have a long way to go. We also earned our Podium Badge for receiving 500 votes We currently have 572 votes. Way to go!!!

Now for the not-so-good news. We have 341 supporters but only 572 votes. This is a DAILY voting contest! We need you to vote every day! Please vote daily and make sure your friends and relatives understand this also. There are 11 days left in this round.

The good news is that we're moving up and are now rank 64th. The bad news is that so far there are only 383 supporters. The good news is that I know we can do better. C'mon people. If we aren't for us, who will be?

This one is really easy to register for and you don't have to give them access to all your personal (Facebook) information to do it, if you don't want to.

Here are the latest results: we are still climbing but slowed down from 50th to 48th overall yesterday.
But... in the all-important group category (large) we moved from 22nd place up to 17th!! Congratulations for cracking the top 20!!

But ... we need to be in the top 10 at the end of the round to get to the semi-finals. We have a lot of work to do and this round is nearly half over. We really do need to jump serveral more places today. As you can see, we have some ground to cover but we can do it TODAY!!!